Made He Thee King
by JubileeKnight
Summary: Edmund learned about justice the hard way; so did Peter. Bookverse.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This moment really struck me during my last reread of LWW, and I felt the need to get inside Peter's head. This falls after Damascus Road and before Reasonable Expectation, and is very much bookverse. Characters and settings obviously not mine.

Made He Thee King

"… _therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice."_

~ 1 Kings 10:9

Peter stood with his back to the camp while Aslan spoke with the Witch. Susan comforted Lucy which was a good thing. Lucy, for all the size of her heart was such a little girl in this new world, and Susan was better at comfort than Peter was. Before Peter had turned away, Edmund had still had his eyes fixed in the direction Aslan had gone. No wonder that; it was his fate that was being decided.

 _All shall be done that may be done, but it may be more difficult than you imagine._

Taller than Dad and blindingly beautiful, the Witch nevertheless repulsed Peter. Knowing what she'd done, what she wanted to do to Edmund, and seeing her beside the golden radiance of Aslan, it was easy to resist her allure. Alone, in the snow, had his brother had a chance?

Edmund hadn't been alone with the Witch when he called Lucy a liar or tried to stop them from following the Robin or left the Beavers' dam. But that was over. Peter had heard - had dragged - many an apology out of his brother in the past, but he couldn't remember Edmund ever looking so genuinely contrite or so transparently fearful of rejection as he had that morning.

Oh, he'd had reason for regret, but he'd looked, then, more afraid of being denied Peter's forgiveness than he seemed to be now of the Witch (And he _was_ afraid. His shoulder had trembled under Peter's hand when the Witch approached.).

And the girls had looked so pleading, and Aslan had been so warm and strong and _understanding_ , and it was the little brother who used to skin his knees trying to climb a tree or score a run. Susan would bandage his wounds, and Lucy would cheer him up, but it was Peter who taught him how to do better next time - or had until he'd stopped wanting to learn. How could he do anything else now?

Forgiving Edmund had been easy.

 _Try and take him_! The bull-man had taken the words before Peter could speak them, but the Witch had dismissed them. He'd been as ready to dismiss her claims about Deep Magic until Aslan had confirmed them.

Aslan, Peter remembered then, had not promised to save Edmund. He'd only promised to try, and while Peter Pevensie would stake his life on Aslan's _try_ (no matter how short the time since he met the Great Lion), staking _Edmund's_ was more frightening. Aslan would do the right thing, but if the right thing meant letting Edmund pay the price of his mistakes in order to save Narnia, Peter doubted hIs own ability to do it. What kind of brother would that make him? But dooming Narnia (every stone and branch and Beast and faun, already his to protect as much as his kin) to save a traitor, even a _penitent_ traitor, ought to disqualify him from the crown Aslan had promised.

 _Harder than you imagine._ Was this what Aslan had meant?

Peter couldn't face his brother, nor could he face the earnest, trusting Narnians, so he looked up and out, at the hill of the Stone Table from which Aslan had shown him (awed and excited and a little fearful) his destiny.

Was it wrong to be grateful that he was not king, yet? That this was Aslan's decision rather than his to make?

When Aslan returned bearing the best of tidings - "She has renounced her claim" - Peter's only thought besides gratified relief was that the next decision _would_ be his.


	2. Chapter 2

Princes Decree Justice

" _By me kings reign, and princes decree justice."_

~ Proverbs 8:15

Professor Kirke smiled, but glanced at the clock. "And when will your sister be joining us?" he asked.

"Susan is no longer a friend of Narnia," said Peter.

The words hung in the air with the weight of a winter cloak. The Professor's face fell.

###

"I don't see how you can _say_ it," Lucy said reproachfully when the three of them were alone later. "I don't like it, either, but-" She looked at their brother for support. "Ed?"

Edmund's face was calm, except for his eyes which sharpened on Peter. _He_ saw, Peter thought, even if he didn't like it. "I nearly killed you all," he said quietly. "And you found that easier to forgive."

 _You were a child,_ Peter thought, but even that was beside the point. "It's not about forgiveness." Just as Edmund (man and shield brother and fellow king) would still be the little brother Peter had looked after when they were children, Susan (woman, social butterfly and disaffected queen) would still be the sister he'd shared with, relied upon and defended. "She isn't. I didn't say she wasn't once or that she can't be or _won't_ be again."

Edmund held his eyes. "I still couldn't do it." Susan was his sister and his confidante and often his verbal sparring partner. She was, as Lucy was, still his queen. She had never been his subject.

"Good my brother." It had been nearly a decade since he'd worn a crown, but Peter rubbed the point on his forehead where it used to fall, and met his brother's fierce gaze. "Thank the Lion you don't have to."


End file.
